The One About Careers

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane chatted with Rachel Brethauer, Copywriter, Magical Unicorn and aspiring TV writer.

Besides giving us a peek behind the curtain of TV writing, Rachel also hit on some pretty important themes in our conversation with her. They included:

• The bonuses of partnerships and connections
• Seeing it as "making friends" and "finding your people" instead of "networking"
• How succ...

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane chatted with Vicki Noels-Cornish, who is a fellow career pro. Vicki's pathway has been a little different than Devon and Sarah-Jane's, mainly because she defines herself as "neurospicy."

If you have ADHD, a learning disability or you feel like you fall into the category of neurodivergence, you definitely don't want to miss this episode!

A few of our big takeaways:

• What...

On this episode, we'll meet Melissa Macfarlane Heidmiller, a Brand Marketing Manager.

We thought she meant brand marketing as in, marketing shoes. She means brand marketing like marketing businesses. It's her job to make sure that organizations look attractive to potential employees.

The industry has only been around since the 80s, and it's been in Canada for maybe 10 years.

Here are a few things we chatted about:

• Th...

Did you ever have a time when you were working in fraud investigation, and then your family history, your creativity and your joy all converged in one place, and you quit your job and opened a restaurant?

Yeah, we didn't either. But this episode's guest did! Meet Honey Abada, the current owner of La Isla Manila in Barrie, Ontario.

Honey dropped some terrific insights on her own career journey, including:

• Leading with cur...

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane jump into the world of environmental careers, with Leslie Greener, Business Centre Pratice Lead, Environmental Service at Stantec Consulting Ltd.

(We didn't know what that meant either, so don't worry, we asked!)

Leslie's work in the environmental field has spanned the private sector, the public sector and consulting work and she's currently on her second tenure at Stantec.

Som...

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane chatted with Courtney Brooks, Case Manager, Employment and Social Services for the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

As usual, talking about someone's career journey led to some great nuggets of information.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Using transfer credits to choose a university program so that it takes less time and costs less
• Finding the balance of competency at work and being challen...

In this week's episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane sit down and talk to Aaron Schoenmaker, and hoooo boy, does he have a story!

Today, Aaron is the Manager of National Student Recruitment at Centennial College.

Follow along as we unwind Aaron's twisty tale from high-school dropout and petty criminal to factory worker, skilled tradesperson, marketer and college recruiter.

Here are a few highlights we discovered:

• Networking and b...

In this week's episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane sit down with Jenn Powell, a self-described "Jenn of all trades."

Currently, Jenn coordinates events and training for clients across the postsecondary education industry in Canada. But how did she get there?

In this chat, we hit on some great nuggets of info:

• Surviving never working in the thing you studied for
• Taking education on a continuing basis while working
• Understand...

Join Devon and Sarah-Jane for a chat with Amanda Donovan, who is the Activities Coordinator for St. Paul's Anglican Church in Charlottetown, PEI. (A job she would never have expected to be doing!)

While much of her job is about event management, and she gets to lean into her love of events and building connections, we got pretty philosophical about life and careers at the end!

Along the way, some other great tidbits about career...

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane interview Will Howe, who is the Provincial Data Lead for the School-College-Work Initiative in Ontario.

While you learn all about Will's extremely windy career path, you'll also hear his insights on:

• Why a liberal arts major is useful
• How to use connections to find work
• The importance of being able to communicate what you learn in school in a language employers understand
• The bonus of ...

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane chat with Shelly Totino, who eventually landed in the communications field after 4 attempts at postsecondary education (2 of which she actually completed!).

In this conversation, you'll hear Shelly's take on:

• The benefits of pursuing postsecondary education when you're not fresh out of high school
• Using networking to land cool jobs
• Using credit transfer to obtain more t...

It wouldn't be unusual to meet someone who has had these jobs throughout their working life:

• Registered Practical Nurse
• Volleyball Referee
• Security Guard
• Drag Performer

But when did you meet someone who has all of them, all at once?

You will on this episode! Parastoo Sadeghein is interested in many different things, and has always been. In her view, why not do them all? 

If you or someone in your life is ...

Don't worry, we started with "what the heck is a Functional Business Analyst??"

This episode launches a series of informational interviews with a variety of people working in a variety of jobs and taking a variety of career paths to get there.

In this episode, Devon and Sarah-Jane interview Melanie Maloney, a Functional Business Analyst at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario. 

Some topics we ...